Weird News

[ZenGum]

There's never a Samuel L Jackson around when you need one.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/c...-1225942045322

[Flint]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

There's never a Samuel L Jackson around when you need one.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/c...-1225942045322

First I'm thinking "one alligator killed 19 people?--damn!" then I read the bullet point

Crocodile escapes from carrier bag

and I'm thinking "JESUS CHRIST, one little bitty alligator that fits inside a handbag kills 19 motherƒucking people??? WTF???"

Then it turns out that the stupid bastards offed themself by wrecking the plane. One final thought: this is why we have to have RULES in society, and, in general, why rules are better followed rather than ignored. A statistically significant percentage of people do shit like this.

[Shawnee123]

Seriously. Or they sit at the public library sniffling and snorting and talking on their cell phone to Amaleen or Billy Ray while 15 tonne of mascara and eyeliner runs down their face and their face piercings leak an unidentifiable liquid substance.

I gotta go, I think the guy next to me is going to throw up.

It's a fucking freak circus here. I wish these people would get on a croc plane. I bet I can find 19 of them in about 3 seconds.

(Was only trying to waste some time before I'm scheduled to pick up my friend. Ugh.)

[Flint]

I believe it was Peter Griffin who identified public libraries as the place where homeless people go to do their BMs.

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

...

(Was only trying to waste some time before I'm scheduled to pick up my friend. Ugh.)

Say hi to Ugh for us. Is he Swedish?

[Bogart]

It's refreshing to know that you don't have to trowel the underbelly of society to find truly weird news. Sometimes it lands in your lap courtesy of that American elite; Hollyweird.

So what about Randy Quaid? What went wrong here, and how did he manage to find a soulmate to join him in this death-spiral?

I'm only vaguely acquainted with the original media attention. Something I read in passing about his running out on a bill, vandalism and hanging out in a home he had sold and no longer had claim to.

This isn't completely surprising, odd, but I'm accustomed to the odd eccentricity of stars. Especially when fueled by a proper dose of alcohol, drugs, or general mental decline. Even running up to Canada to skip out on a bill I am fairly certain he could have just quietly paid and retained some dignity. But now this?

There, the pair — who were arrested a day earlier on outstanding U.S. warrants — told an adjudicator that the actor has had eight close friends murdered in recent years, adding they fear that they could be next.

In a handwritten note, shown to media by their Vancouver-based lawyer, Brian Tsuji, the couple said: "Yes we are requesting asylum from Hollywood 'STAR WHACKERS.'"

Those Quaid counts among his "murdered" friends include actors Heath Ledger and David Carradine.

Arrested Hollywood star Randy Quaid and wife fear 'star whackers,' seek refugee status in Canada

Now, Ledger was a rising star, Carradine was managing a decent comeback lately, but I have to assume that some conspiracy would mean that they all had something shared in common that would make them a target. Their demises aren't even in alphabetical order.

I can think of at least a dozen other stars more deserving of being targeted by "STAR WHACKERS". While Ledger and Quaid shared a role in Brokeback Mountain, Carradine didn't. It would have been nice had they included a slightly longer list. After all, even a delusion has some base, but to create a shared delusion one would think would it would have to have a better grounding.

Other tidbits are that Quaid has lots of "beard" and drives a 10 year old Camry. I guess the latter either implies he's a poor handler of his money, or rather conservative in his spending.

"He didn't look like one of those (Hollywood) guys. He had lots of beard and his car had lots of junk in the back," said Hank Ew of Bill Chow Jewellers who described Quaid's car as a 10 year-old dark-coloured Toyota packed with personal belongings.

Quiet Vancouver neighbourhood privy to bizarre Randy Quaid arrest

After Mel Gibson I think that having lots of beard is now par for the course when you begin your decent.

Apparently Quaid was also banned for life from Actors' Equity Association and fined $81,572 stemming from complaints by all 26 members of the cast of "Lone Star Love". You can piss off some of the people some of the time, but to piss off all the people all of the time shows extraordinary effort.

I don't know what to make of that, but it did give rise to this most excellent quote:

Quaid said, "I am guilty of only one thing: Giving a performance that elicited a response so deeply felt by the actors and producers with little experience of my creative process that they actually think I am Falstaff."

Randy Quaid fined, banned for life by actors' union over Seattle imbroglio

You gotta love the bravado.

But now we get this:

"I would not do anything to besmirch my reputation any further than it has been," the actor said.

"I'm trying to do damage control."

uhh... traveling around getting arrested, missing court dates, fleeing the country and then proclaiming yourself the victim of a shadowy group murdering fellow actors isn't the best PR.

But then again, what do I know? He's got a lot to compete with these days. If the old adage, "Any publicity is good publicity", then Britney Spears surely upped the ante quite a bit.

Now, most of the pathos of the stars is just plain boring. I wouldn't know who Lohan or Hilton were except their latest escapades constantly being forced upon me. OJ and Robert Blake had to kill someone to get noticed, so I guess they're counted as worthy. Walking on a murder charge is also noteworthy. Never the less, I have to now wonder; just what has happened to Randy Quaid?

[Clodfobble]

His brother Dennis does a charity golf event in town every year. So at least the genes aren't totally worthless.

[spudcon]

I think it was Randy Quaid who once said "You ain't paranoid if they really are out to get you."

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Flint

I believe it was Peter Griffin who identified public libraries as the place where homeless people go to do their BMs.

I remember, as a kid, it was more of a place of solitude and reverence. Librarians shushed you. Kids didn't run up and down the stairs whoopin' and hollerin'. The advent of the computer terminals has brought in a batch of folks that change the landscape. It IS a public place, but I miss the old days. I thought "you might not know it, but if you look around you will see thousands of wonderful books. Read a couple, see what you think."

And get offa my lawn!

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

Say hi to Ugh for us. Is he Swedish?

Ha! Judging by the, em...size, I would certainly say he got in on the ground floor of the country's penis enlarger industry.

Kidding, it was a g-friend, shopping for Halloween costumes for the Halloween wedding on Sunday.

I think I'll be a hippy.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I remember, as a kid, it was more of a place of solitude and reverence. Librarians shushed you.

Supposedly now they are going to have computers do that.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Good idea, if the ambient noise level get too high the computer shuts down. If you're the one making the noise, you shut up, and if it's someone else, you knock 'em the fuck out. Very effective.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I remember, as a kid, it was more of a place of solitude and reverence. Librarians shushed you. Kids didn't run up and down the stairs whoopin' and hollerin'. The advent of the computer terminals has brought in a batch of folks that change the landscape. It IS a public place, but I miss the old days. I thought "you might not know it, but if you look around you will see thousands of wonderful books. Read a couple, see what you think."

Libraries figured they had better get on the computer bandwagon, or get left behind.

Sometimes when you get on the bandwagon, you leave yourself behind.

[Shawnee123]

I know. I just wax nostalgic for the wonder my library used to be for me. It still is: current city 'brary was made out of a turn of the century hotel that I feared for years would be torn down (used to take people on "tours" of the old hotel because the bar where I worked connected to the old run down place) and it is beautiful.

I have a thing for old buildings AND books.

I don't have a thing for in-bred stupidity and grossness.

[Flint]

The local branch of the library when I was a kid was a tall angular building of architectual wonder and mystery, with big exposed wooden ceiling beams reaching up overhead, creating a mystical realm which was treated with reverence. To enter, you had to pass through a semi-covered walkway area overhung by huge, ancient trees...you knew that you were entering a different type of place, almost like a cathedral.



When they rebuilt the Safeway around the corner, they revamped the entire shopping center, and the entire layout of the surrounding buildings. The old library and the ancient trees were torn down.



The new local branch of the library occupies an unassuming, sterile unit at the end of the "new & improved" strip mall. It resembles a 7-11 where you can get books. The children will never know what they've missed.

[Shawnee123]

Yeah, that's going around. I still hear (even old) folks bitch about the cost to restore this beautiful building into one of the town's most important public places: but it is history. It's my Great grandfather's history and our town's history and my ancestor's history (and there is even a history book or two...heeheee) and I could almost get choked up in there sometimes.

Thanks for "getting it" Flint.